A Query for Principles of Online Research

Imagine you are trying to teach your students how to find reliable information via the internet. What are some main points you would need to teach them?

I have often thought that effective practices can be boiled down to numbered lists or bullets. Am I mistaken in this regard? Is online research just a matter of following instinct, or are there specific principles that can guide the honest student to legitimate sources of information.

Let's make this post into a list. Think of two "principles" or "guidelines" for finding credible and reliable information online. They may be different at varying age levels, but if so, just note that in your comment.

I'll start. The online researcher should look for a variety of sources, including contemporary versus time-established; differing points of view; and scholarly work versus anecdotal opinion stuff.

How creative and insightful can you get as you expand this list?

Disrupting Class

I have long thought that teaching with technology can and should be transformative. As the authors of a new book about technology in education point out, however, it is difficult for schools to incorporate new systems in truly transformative ways.

Using industry as a guide, they examine and explain how two main categories of innovation-- sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation-- have defined the the lay of the of those industries' landscape.

An example cited is the personal computer, which disrupted an industry previously the domain of manufacturers of hugh mainframes and only slightly smaller "minicomputers," none of which were designed for home use. Instead of trying to compete against established companies, Apple introduced it's IIe as something of a toy-- to users who were not in the market before. In this way, Apple made a new market out of the disruptive innovation.

Disrupting Class obviously praises American school systems for how they have responded to their customers' needs and the market's demands, but offer some guidance as to how it could incorporate disruptive innovation better.

Instead of applying a new technology into existing systems, as have done businesses to no great success, they argue that schools must find "new markets" for technology, taking on a role that nobody currently has.

For instance, instead of installing class computers to supplements what the teacher normally does, and has done for decades, a new set of computers could be used to teach a class that has never been taught, or tutor kids in a way that a teacher never could.

Given that an individual teacher has little impact on the way a school system, much less an individual school, is organized, I wonder how a teacher could use technology innovation in a disruptive way.

What are some ways we can use innovations in our own classrooms that serve "markets" that never existed before? That is, how can we use technology to fill roles that have never been filled before?

Are you an efficient teacher?

Technology is supposed to make us more efficient workers. Gutenberg's printing press made possible mass production of books. The spinning jenny resulted in cheaper yarn helping to usher in the Industrial Revolution. Of course, Henry Ford's famous assembly line production drove down the price of automobiles for American families. And the microwave oven allows college students to consume vast quantities of unhealthy foods during late night study sessions without making a huge mess.

Teaching, as in book-making, can be done more efficiently. And, unlike heating a hot pocket at 2 a.m., finding ways to teach more efficiently actually benefits students.

For example, in my math class I am able to assemble a standards-aligned exam using database test-generating software that sorts items by standard, objective, and difficulty. Then, after students fill in their bubble sheets, I scan them and run detailed reports according to the same criteria.

How does this make me more efficient besides processing tests more quickly (which is a huge benefit by itself)? By having such detailed reports instantly, I can isolate weaknesses early on and clear up misunderstandings before they infect other topics. My students will also know exactly what is going to be expected of them in the course, instead of having to learn a broad set of information and hope that what I assess is including in that.

Let's find the easiest, quickest way to teach and learn what we need to.

Technology can help you do it. What will you do to let it?

My Favorite Software

As a math teacher, I should be on the cutting edge of tools built by digits.

(Reminds me of a really nerdy computer science joke: There are ten kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.)

But, believe it or not, near the top of my list s good old Microsoft Word. If I can include the MathType add-on, that would seal the deal.

You see, I use MS Word to create math test items. Regular, standard-aligned, standardized assessment is a top priority, and so far I haven't found anything to match the power and flexibility of the word processor. I have searched in vain for an adequate database tool, but none has the ability to insert the graphics and equations the way that I'd like. I've used ExamView for more language-based items, but in math, I need to insert graphics and equations as stems and distractors.

So I've designed an elegant little template for my math items to match that of the California Standards Test items.

I keep looking. In the meantime, Word works adequately.

What is one of your favorite tools?

Is PowerPoint for Dummies?

I am a United States Soldier.

Among other things, that means that I have seen a LOT of PowerPoint presentations.

The main difference I have seen between a blackboard and a PP slideshow is that the presenter can deliver a lecture using the latter without even knowing what he is talking about.

Two anecdotes illustrate the way some slideshows squander opportunities that digital presentations afford.

The first one was when I was at the Defense Information School, a place that ought to have been a hub for leading communications technologies. One day in class the digital projector burned out, so our instructor read the slides aloud to us, from a print out! We were responsible for knowing everything he just read! If that's all that was needed to get the information across, why not just give us a copy, or refer us to read a long, boring document?

About six months later, when I was mobilizing, we had a class on some important legal matter. The slideshow was ready without anyone to deliver it, because by Army regulation the content had to be read by a JAG officer. We were fortunate enough to have one in the audience, so he stood up and, without ever having seen the presentation, delivered it with such expertise that we all became instantly qualified to serve overseas.

Inspired by these true events, I wrote an article on how to make the most of digital presentations.

Read it here, and then let me know, do I practice what I preach?

What Is a Digital Classroom?

It sounds cutting edge, and cutting edge is always better, right?

The high technology that has slowly been introduced into American classrooms may be the beginning of a revolution in teaching and learning, but only if teachers harness and couple it with effective teaching practices.

At the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning, researchers have identified nine instructional strategies that consistently affect improved student performance. They are:

1. idenitifying similarities and differences
2. summarizing and note-taking
3. reinforcing effort and providing recognition
4. homework and practice
5. non-linguistic representation
6. coopertive learning
7. setting objectives and providing feedback
8. generating and testing hypotheses
9. cues, questions, and advance organizers

These strategies (maybe "tactics" is a more appropriate term) are simple, and none necessitate high technology. But technologies, particularly interactive ones, give teachers more options to implement them.

Describing how in detail would fill volumes. But each of these strategies can be implemented using basic technology, and even limited understanding of the technology can let teachers do their jobs more efficiently.

For example, at my high school, we use a Google Form to quickly identify those students who haven't done their homework so that the appropriate administrator can ensure that they report to Homework Center-- an opportunity to get the support they need as well as an important accountability tool.

More intriguing are those technologies that facilitate new paths to learning: perhaps the displacement of the textbook, variations on the traditional teacher lectures, and a change in the routines that haven't changed fundamentally in nearly a century.

What does it mean to you to "digitize" your classroom?

Welcome to TEC!

Here we go again with another section of TEC 600. Every semester seems more exciting than the previous, probably for several reasons, foremost among them is that it's been over a year since I've taught this, so I'm eager to see what new insights and skills my students will bring.

On that note, this survey will help me find out:

Click Here to take survey

Another reason that this class may be more exciting is that technology continues to advance in significant ways, and the possibilities that many technologies portend for our classrooms are intriguing.

The principles are the same as they were a year ago, but what were previoulsy emerging technology and trends are now ubiquitous. Take this blog, for instance. Just five years ago, Blogger was a relative newcomer in the world of the web, and only recently acquired by Google. There were around 50 million blogs already, but today that number has tripled. In the last 24 hours, another million posts were published in the blogosphere.

Finally, as this technology permeates more aspects of our lives, the way we think, create, interact, and operate changes. A few ideas about how:

1. People think more quickly. Before the digital age, people thought more deliberately. Compared to what it took me to to type this sentence, it would have taken much more forethought to compose the same sentence by hand or typewriter. We think and write more concisely these days.

2. People are often less inclined to make face-to-face connections. In the era of Facebook and email, how easy is it to feel empowered to communicate behind your computer screen?

3. Folks are apt to think globally and less hierarchically. From the textbook to the hyperlink, we now see knowledge as more of a network than a linear collection of causes and effects.

How else has the digital age and its accompanying technologies affect how we think? How do those changes affect how students might learn, and how we should plan to teach them?